Future of Education

Why I think Academic Life Coaching is the Future of Education

The Industrial Academic Education System

Traditional schools are designed to deliver academic content and were designed primarily in the industrial age. In an industrial process, there is a premium on taking raw materials and creating identical products. The aim of the institutions is to create products that looked and functioned alike.

Schools today still very much function like factories aiming to create students who can score high on standardized tests. “We have to have high standards in education” rings true in current schools.

Ironically, such a focus on standardizing students and the education process isn’t getting the results that people expect, and for good reason: educating a human being is much more than just educating them academically. It’s about all the other areas of life as well.

As science reaches new understanding about those other life skills such as empathy and creativity, it becomes possible to measure how advanced or behind a student is in those skills. Such measurement allows the softer life skills to now be included in an industrial mindset and setting.

I do not believe that schools in the next twenty years are going to go through a major overhaul in the way that they are structured with classes centered around separate subjects. I believe the future of education will include different, more dynamic classes that are more project based and include sections on empathy and an emphasis on creativity.

Which leads to the next step in education…

Change in Subject, Change in Instruction

Technology now allows us to be even better at delivering academic content. Students can now learn on their individual pace with computers aiding content delivery.

“Watch this video, then let’s work on these problems together.”

The role of teachers shifts from classroom management and lectures to giving each student individualized attention in solving problems and developing an individualized approach to how each student learns best and why certain habits work best for them.

Essentially technology will free up teachers to become more like Academic Life Coaches, professionals equipped to help students thrive on an individual basis as well as address complex human experience of motivation and thinking styles as well as nurture a rich, creative expression of each student.

The Revolution in Education is Already Happening

The revolution in education is already happening with the advent of the flipped classroom and now over 120 people being trained as Academic Life Coaches, including teachers at several schools.

If the current pace continues, there will be over 1,000 teachers and professionals trained as Academic Life Coaches in the next three years. As that pace quickens – as it most likely will – there will become a time when training as an Academic Life Coach will be required with a teacher’s certificate.

The next step – and one that I believe will transform society and give young people powerful tools to manage their lives as well as be a support for their friends and family – is in training each student in the basic concepts and skills of Life Coaching.

And the best part: the model of the industrial school doesn’t have to change. The revolution can be as simple as reallocating class time and providing a year long training for students in Life Coaching.

And yes, of course the standards for the Life Coaching course will be extremely high.